SMP Robotics: Challenging the Status-Quo in the Industry

The sweeping changes in the AI (Artificial Intelligence) industry have been a positive sign for organizations operating across many sectors. From the manufacturing industry to the investment industry, organizations have been witnessing the growth of AI with the substantial disruptive potential to improve productivity and maximize efficiency. But yet, when customers think of AI, they first relate it to gaming and recreation. However, AI is much more than that. Over the past few years, AI was being applied in the cyber security space as in every other industry. As a result, world-class cyber security experts could bring about new changes in the industry and a lot of top-tier technology companies started investing in AI and cyber security, including the big anti-virus companies.

SMP Robotics, a security robots service provider, is the first company in the robotics security segment that started employing AI in real security applications. With its best-in-class platforms such as S5 robotics platform and Nvidia, the company has become synonym with the term robotics and showed customers how they could really improve the productivity as well as prevent their valuable assets from potential hackers.

Breaking the Paradigms of Conventional Security Applications

“The problem with the security systems of companies was that simply increasing the number of cameras and their quality did not improve the companies’ overall security,” says Leo Ryzhenko, CEO, SMP Robotics. In fact, he adds, the cells became silent witnesses of violations and crimes, without offering any help to victims and without calling or informing authorities. Though the recordings from the cameras could help organizations in further investigations, in most of the cases, the security cameras turned into a system that would simply record various violations and crimes. As a security robots service provider, SMP Robotics’ robots fundamentally change the way security systems operate—from passive recordings to active prevention and fixation of violations as well as intruder detection and activation security personnel on-site.

“A security company decides what to do. Sometimes it’s not a serious violation or any laws being violated; sometimes you just need to inform a person (through a robot) that he is in a prohibited area,” explains Ryzhenko. Then, the company may further inform that the intruder needs to immediately leave the restricted zone. Alternatively, the company may send a security group to capture the intruders. “The idea of using AI in SMP robots is that the robot must recognize the problems and violations and therefore respond to the problem. This is the practical application of AI,” adds Ryzhenko. SMP Robotics’ robots key features include obstacle avoidance and anti-collision system, panic button and two ways audio intercom, easy integration with VMS central monitor systems, 100% ONVIF standards support, Self-diagnostics support, remote robot monitoring system, and many more.

To effectively solve security tasks, robots should interact in groups, distribute tasks and routes, keep a safe distance, and redistribute areas of responsibility depending upon the operational situations. These are very complex AI tasks related to the robots’ swarm behavior. While teaching robots the routes movement was quite a difficult task, training them deviation of the routes in the event of unexpected obstacles and automating them to use the routes both during the daytime and night in any weather condition was also a challenging factor. SMP Robotics addressed all these challenges by employing swarm technology to manage and optimize the behavior of robotic groups. This, in turn, made them the first company to employ swarm technology for security and enabled to design top-notch robots for the cyber security community.

Another major challenge the company faced while conceiving the benefits of robots was making customers comprehend how robots work. “Usually customers expect too much from robots. Many people think that the robot is something like a vacuum cleaner. Just push the button, and it works,” says Ryzhenko. Also, the fact that the robots need to be trained for several days to a month causes clients considerable shock. Breaking the paradigm of the conventional idea of robotics, SMP Robotics designed robots that can be integrated with the enterprise security system, which work in groups. This helped customers to ensure the security of their organizations and valuable assets and have a proactive approach to cyber security.

“Security Robots make sense if they are integrated with the enterprise security system and work in groups. Without this, a single robot not integrated with the enterprise security system is absolutely inefficient and the use of such a robot makes no sense whatsoever,” explains Ryzhenko. Moreover, both customers and partners of SMP Robotics understand that security robots are a new spin on a technology revolution in the industry. And those employ these technologies in their organizations can draw value and ensure higher levels of security within their organizations.
In the innovation lab, the company is developing cutting-edge technologies including the swarm intelligence for the reliable group patrolling of large areas, deep learning for human recognition in the cameras’ observation range, and easy integration with VMS central monitor systems. The company going forward intends to implement at least 500 robots in the coming years. “These robots will be completely autonomous, and the level of their knowledge and capabilities will grow over time,” concludes Ryzhenko.